The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace

IFLAC is a voluntary Association that strives for peace by building bridges of understanding and peace through culture, literature and communication. IFLAC is founded and directed by Egyptian-born Israeli writer Ada Aharoni (Ph.D), since 1999.

Day of Remembrance

“Today is the Day of the Holocaust,” Ernesto Kahan writes in this poem. “I am silent, do not want to speak.” Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed as Israel’s day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Dr. Kahan is, among many other things, the Vice Director of IFLAC.

YOM HA’SHOAH –
DAY OF THE HOLOCAUST

Silence…! All is empty,
even what I see…
Today, the 28 of April,
I am silent, do not want to speak

I remember 1940,
conflicts, maps and strategies.
Europe at war
its soldiers fighting

No, not for the Jews
for them extermination and agony
a number, the crematorium,
German doctors, “euthanasia”

Holocaust – SHOAH:
Crime and pain,
each second in a struggle
not to be gassed…

Today is the Day of the Holocaust,
neo World, neo Europe,
neo anti-Semitism,
neo hate

My thoughts fly and crash
against an imaginary wall
return without asking me.
I keep on silent…

Without tears…
Dry eyes, in silence…
Six million murdered…
Survivors who can not cry…

Dry eyes looking at nothing…
I am silent,
do not want to speak.
Today is the Day of the Holocaust

Very moving poem. We must remember that not only were 6 million Jews murdered, several million others were also murdered including Poles, Slavs, Soviets, people with mental illness, deaf people, physically disabled people, homosexual and transsexual people, political opponents, Jehovah’s witnesses, and more… Let us remember all the victims of this tragedy.